March 13, 2012

Disney Has Us By The Nostalgic Short Hairs

In Disney's Most Notorious Film / Race, Convergence and the Hidden Histories of Song of the South, his forthcoming study of the zip-a-dee-doo-dah racist classic, film historian Jason Sperb has a fascinating discussion of nostalgia, and how it shapes our memories, perceptions, and experiences:

Meanwhile, nostalgia also becomes important to shaping and sustaining ritualistic behaviors on the part of audiences. Whole families of Disney fans--which is also part of the company's manufactured nostalgia--begin to emerge and reproduce, creating seemingly limitless waves of generational nostalgia that the company can and will continue to foster and exploit.